Montgomerie, Archibald William,
thirteenth earl of Eglinton and first earl of Winton (1812–1861),politician and racing patron, was born on 29 September
1812 at Palermo, Sicily, the second surviving son of Major-General Archibald
Montgomerie, Lord Montgomerie (1773–1814), and his cousin, Lady Mary Montgomerie
(1787–1848). As heirs of, respectively, Hugh Montgomerie, twelfth earl of
Eglinton, and Archibald Montgomerie, eleventh earl, the Montgomeries' combined
rights to the family estates and title ensured that considerable wealth would
pass undivided to their heir. Lord Montgomerie died of consumption at Alicante,
Spain, in January 1814, and in January 1815, against the wishes of the twelfth
earl, his widow married Charles Montolieu Lamb (1785–1860), who became second
baronet in 1824 and knight marshal of the royal household the following year. In
retaliation the twelfth earl took away guardianship of her two sons and brought
them up at Eglinton Castle, his Gothic-revival seat in Ayrshire. There the elder
boy, Hugh (b. 1811), died of croup on 13 July 1817, and Archibald became
Lord Montgomerie and heir, succeeding as thirteenth earl at his grandfather's
death on 14 December 1819.

By his grandfather's will Eglinton's upbringing and management were controlled
by five trustees, against whom he and his mother frequently rebelled. He was
educated ineffectually by tutors at Eglinton Castle, wretchedly at a private
school in Mitcham (1821–5), and riotously at Eton College (1825–8). In 1826, at
fourteen, enabled under Scottish law to take partial control of his own affairs,
he firmly did so, and in 1828 left Eton to live and travel with his mother and
stepfather, spending the next five years mainly in claret drinking, debauchery,
and steeplechasing. When he reached his majority, on 29 September 1833, he
settled at Eglinton Castle to devote himself to sport. In token of future
earnestness, however, he took his seat in the Lords as Baron Ardrossan on 1 May
1834, and became colonel of the Ayrshire militia (1836–52) and lord lieutenant
of Ayrshire in 1842. At this time, although he reputedly drank nothing but
champagne, he was robust and fit, with a lively eye and fine dark mutton chop
whiskers.

Eglinton's wealth and interest in horses coincided happily with a large-scale
expansion of horse racing as a popular recreation. He bought well, employed good
trainers and jockeys (who had to ride in patriotic tartan), and won many classic
races, including the Derby and St Leger. His best horse, The Flying Dutchman,
beat Lord Zetland's Voltigeur in a historic match at York in May 1851. Elected
to the Jockey Club in 1838, he helped to establish organized steeplechasing in
England, and campaigned with Lord George Bentinck against betting fraud. Both he
and Bentinck, however, heavily backed their own horses, and in 1843 two victims
of their reforms, the Russell brothers, brought an action against Eglinton,
Bentinck, Charles Greville, and other Jockey Club members under the obscure
Qui tam statute (9 Anne c.14), which technically
limited wagers to minute amounts. Closing ranks, the sporting establishment
rushed a bill through parliament in February 1844 which removed all limits.

The Eglinton Tournament of 1839, the outstanding example of early Victorian
medievalism in action, secured his fame. Beginning as a private gesture, it so
catered to public appetite for pageantry and heroism that it grew into a
national event. In June 1838 the whig government had for reasons of economy
omitted some traditional ceremonies from Queen Victoria's coronation. In
Conservative reproof, Eglinton, enthusiastically urged on by friends and family,
announced in August a medieval tournament and banquet at Eglinton Castle. He
originally planned only an amusement for his race meeting in the spring of 1839,
but the unexpected public response forced postponement for adequate organization
and for rehearsal of unskilled knights. The number of these gradually fell from
an initial 150 to thirteen, but on 28 August 100,000 spectators gathered, their
presence at this medieval spectacle made possible by the prime symbols of
Victorian mechanical progress, railways and passenger steamers. Unfortunately,
the prevailing weather pattern of western Scotland held: torrential rain fell,
and knights, ladies, and spectators fled the field. Eglinton's fortitude (or
obstinacy) redeemed what might have been total fiasco—he hospitably detained his
guests until the weather improved, and on 30 August successfully held his
tournament, banquet, and ball. The costs were enormous, Eglinton's own
expenditure probably approaching £40,000. But, although the tournament was
ridiculed by some critics, its enactment of chivalric metaphor is now seen to
have inspired Victorian imagination in art and literature, as well as public and
private standards of behaviour.

Eglinton himself owed his subsequent political career to the fame of his
Tournament. Before that, however, he married, on 17 February 1841, Theresa (d.
1853), widow of Richard Cockerell RN, and one of eight illegitimate children of
Thomas, second and last Viscount Newcomen, and Harriet Holland. Lady Eglinton's
pathological jealousy made it an unhappy marriage—in his own words, ‘the great,
the most important, error of my life’—but it produced four children: Archibald
William, fourteenth earl (1841–1892), Egidia (later Lady Rendlesham; 1843–1880)
, Seton Montolieu (1846–1883), and George Arnulph, fifteenth earl (1848–1919).
In these years Eglinton became more active in parliament. He was a
protectionist, and in 1846 spoke against corn law repeal, joined in attempts at
a whig–protectionist coalition, and was assistant whip in the Lords. His reform
of the election of Scottish representative peers (1847) was in part
nationalistic but was also intended to increase protectionist numbers, as were
his frequent banquets and house parties. In 1848 he prevented the pope being
able to appoint a priest as his British envoy, and he opposed the abolition of
Jewish disabilities. In February 1851 he was part of Lord Derby's unsuccessful
attempt to form a protectionist government and in Derby's first administration
was lord lieutenant of Ireland (February–December 1852), where his fairness and
liberality (reputedly spending £50,000) made him extremely popular. He was
elected lord rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen (1851–3), and of the
University of Glasgow (1852–4), and for his work in Ireland was made DCL of
Oxford University and a knight of the Thistle in June 1853. In December 1853
Lady Eglinton died.

During Derby's second administration Eglinton was again lord lieutenant of
Ireland (February 1858 – June 1859). In November 1858 he married Lady Adela
Caroline Harriet Capel (1828–1860), only daughter of Arthur, sixth earl of
Essex, and his first wife, Caroline; by this very happy marriage he had two
daughters, Sybila Amelia Adela (1859–1932) and Hilda Rose (later Baroness Anslow;
1860–1928) . In Ireland he continued to work for protectionist interests,
although he rejected on principle Disraeli's suggestion to appoint Roman
Catholics to patronage positions. He resigned with the tory government in June
1859, and was created earl of Winton, a dormant title to which he had been made
heir male general in 1840.

On 31 December 1860 Eglinton's wife died of rheumatic fever, and in July 1861 he
spoke for the last time in the Lords. For some months he had complained of
intermittent disturbances of vision, and on 1 October, at Mount Melville House,
St Andrews, he had a stroke, from which he never regained consciousness. He died
at Mount Melville on 4 October 1861 and was buried on 11 October in the family
vault at Kilwinning, Ayrshire.

At his death Eglinton was the most popular nobleman in Scotland, while Disraeli
described him as ‘the most honest man, & the most straightforward, I ever dealt
with’. Edward Stanley (future fifteenth earl of Derby), testily examining a list
of hereditary peers, found that only eighty-one out of 380 actually did any
significant work: one of them was Eglinton. Amiably, probably uncomprehendingly,
but consistently, he applied chivalric values to Victorian life. [Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography Mary S. Millar]